Participants in the 2022-2023 Arts Leadership Academy are raising funds for the Starting with Art Initiative (stART). The State of Illinois does not currently require visual arts education for grades K-3rd. As a community-focused Art Center, they bridge that gap by supplying schools with standards-based lesson plans and art supplies that meet grade-level expectations. Teachers are given instruction from the Art Center on how to complete the lesson so that they may present the lesson to their students in their own classrooms. The Starting with Art Initiative (stART) comes at no cost to the teachers, students, or school districts. The Art Center annually serves over 2,000 K-3rd students with this program. With appropriate funding and support, the Art Center intends to expand the program this year to better serve the surrounding Illinois counties (rural Adams, Pike, and Brown) and school districts outside of Quincy. This expansion should more than double the numbers by Spring 2023.